"Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible"

“Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible” will be
the subject of a presentation by performance activist
Peterson Toscano on Wednesday, April
28, at 7:30 p.m., in Wilde
Auditorium.

The program is the final event in the year-long "Civil
Liberties in the 21st Century Community Conversations
Colloquium."

This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are
required. For tickets, please call the University box
office at 860.768.4228 or 800.274.8587.

Peterson Toscano is a theatrical performance
activist who uses comedy and storytelling to address social justice
concerns. He spent 17 years and more than $30,000 on three
continents attempting to change and suppress his same-sex
orientation and gender differences. Since 2003, he has traveled in
North America, Europe, and Africa performing and speaking in the
media. After a decade of “detoxing” from years of repression and
misinformation, Toscano began to go beyond his own experience to
write plays that explore sexism, racism, the environment, violence,
and gender. This newest play is about transgender Bible
characters.

Toscano’s journey out of the closet was long and complicated. After
years of submitting to reparative therapy through counseling and
ex-gay support groups in the United States, England, and Ecuador,
he enrolled in the ex-gay residential program, “Love in Action,” in
Memphis, Tenn. He graduated successfully from the program nearly
two years later, but in January 1999 he finally came out and fully
accepted himself as a gay man. Since that time, Toscano has worked
to undo the damage of gay reparative therapy in his own life. He
has also raised public awareness about the harm that comes from
seeking to suppress and change one’s sexuality and gender
differences.

The "Civil Liberties in the 21st Century Community Conversations
Colloquium" series is sponsored by the Rogow Distinguished
Visiting Lecturers Program and the Office of the
Provost. The members of the colloquium planning committee
are Jilda Aliotta, Mary Dowst, Marcia Moen, Katie Roy '09,
Paul Siegel, and Donn Weinholtz.